now (in his own peculiar manner) as great a dandy as he before had been a
slattern, and when he entered his sitting-room to join his two guests,
arrived scented and arrayed in fine linen, and perfectly splendid in
appearance.

General or Captain Costigan--for the latter was the rank which he
preferred to assume--was seated in the window with the newspaper held
before him at arm's length. The Captain's eyes were somewhat dim; and he
was spelling the paper, with the help of his lips, as well as of those
bloodshot eyes of his, as you see gentlemen do to whom reading is a rare
and difficult occupation. His hat was cocked very much on one ear; and as
one of his feet lay up in the window-seat, the observer of such matters
might remark, by the size and shabbiness of the boots which the Captain
wore, that times did not go very well with him. Poverty seems as if it
were disposed, before it takes possession of a man entirely, to attack
his extremities first: the coverings of his head, feet, and hands are its
first prey. All these parts of the Captain's person were particularly
rakish and shabby. As soon as he saw Pen he descended from the
window-seat and saluted the new-comer, first in a military manner, by
conveying a couple of his fingers (covered with a broken black glove) to
his hat, and then removing that ornament altogether. The Captain was
inclined to be bald, but he brought a quantity of lank iron-grey hair
over his pate, and had a couple of whisps of the same falling down on
each side of his face. Much whisky had spoiled what complexion Mr.
Costigan may have possessed in his youth. His once handsome face had now
a copper tinge. He wore a very high stock, scarred and stained in many
places; and a dress-coat tightly buttoned up in those parts where the
buttons had not parted company from the garment.

"The young gentleman to whom I had the honour to be introjuiced yesterday